Review of Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia

Review of Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia; Comparing Indonesia and Malaysia, (co-editor with Sumit K. Mandal), London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

• 2004_Vol28-No3_ASIAN STUDIES REVIEW-c
  “This empirically rich and theoretically well-informed collection of comparative essays on women, intellectuals, art workers and industrial workers, as well as environmental and Islamic activists in Indonesia and Malaysia during the late 1990s is an interesting attempt to excavate the complex social forces that are currently forming the civil societies in the two countries.”

  Review by Michael Jacobsen, Asian Studies Review, 28 (3), 2004: 342-343.

• 2004_Vol26-No1_CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIA-c
  “Together, the six essays and the incisive introduction provide some new ways of looking at authoritarianism in the region. Whether soft or hard, the phenomenon needs to be better understood in local contexts. The remedy against its persistence and its spread may not be found in borrowing from the West and confronting it with set arguments about democracy being the only antidote to this particular ailment.”

  Review by Wang Gungwu, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 26 (1/Apr), 2004: 181-183.

• 2004_10-Aug_INTERSECTIONS-c
  “The book constitutes a vital contribution, as its contributors provide detailed empirical accounts of social activists and ‘extra-parliamentary actors’ working outside of formal institutional frameworks, as well as describing sets of political dynamics away from political elites.”

  Review by Ian Wilson, Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, 10 (August), 2004.

• 2004_04_25 THE NATION The Lessons of Reformasi-c
  “While the book is written in the strict fashion of academic writing developed in the West, most of the book’s contributors are local scholars who themselves have had direct personal involvement with the activism discussed. This is not a book written by armchair academics in a faraway air-conditioned ivory tower.”

  Review by Rungrawee C Pinyorat, The Nation, 25/04/2004: 8B.

• 2003_10_05_TJP Southeast Asia Dare Say Enough Is Enough-c
  “Ariel Heryanto, Sumit Mandal and their cowriters are to be congratulated for the publication of this important book. Written and conceptualized in the period leading up to the reformasi (refonn) upheavals in Indonesia, and Malaysia, it offers the reader a serious and in-depth evaluation of the sociopolitical implications of those events. More than that, it examines and offers fresh analyses of the challenges to the persistence of authoritarianism.”

  Review by Johan Saravanamuttu, The Jakarta Post, 5/11/2003: 8.

• 2003_09_No16_OPTIONS2 The Establishment and The People-c
  “This book seeks to record one aspect of life in Malaysia and Indonesia. the battle of the last few years against oppression. It does not provide any blue print for the future but it does provide valuable insights into the present – insights that are necessary for a more accurate view of the socio-political situation of the two countries. This is important not only for aiding a better understanding of one another, but also as a foundation upon which to build a more cohesive and informed approach towards the opposition of tyranny. A foundation cannot be built upon the rubble of home truths.”

  Review by Azmi Sharom, Options2, 9 (16/Sept), 2003: 26.

• 2003_09_15_TEMPO Neighborhood Watch-c
  “The editors and contributors have skillfully maintained their focus on the issue while successfully avoiding the obvious danger of digressing, thus opening Pandora’s box and overreaching.”

  Review by Dewi Anggraeni, Tempo, 15/09/2003: 64.